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Japan To Begin Testing Fingerprints As 'Currency' (the-japan-news.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from The Japan News: Starting this summer, the government will test a system in which foreign tourists will be able to verify their identities and buy things at stores using only their fingerprints. The government hopes to increase the number of foreign tourists by using the system to prevent crime and relieve users from the necessity of carrying cash or credit cards. It aims to realize the system by the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The experiment will have inbound tourists register their fingerprints and other data, such as credit card information, at airports and elsewhere. Tourists would then be able to conduct tax exemption procedures and make purchases after verifying their identities by placing two fingers on special devices installed at stores. The Inns and Hotels Law requires foreign tourists to show their passports when they check into ryokan inns or hotels. The government plans to substitute fingerprint authentication for that requirement.
Having been here for several months: yeah, it's not the currency keeping people away, or even the high prices. While many Japanese people are friendly, you get the distinct impression that they don't want visitors.
I've spent about four months total in Japan, mostly in Osaka but some day trips out to the boonies. The Japanese people I encountered were almost universally polite and helpful. I got quite a few free drinks and even a free dinner from people who wanted to practice English.
Yes, there was one drunk guy unhappy to see a white guy on his street and yelled at me, one cashier who ignored me and one older guy who didn't want to sit next to me on a train. Meh. More than balanced out by the woman who all but took me by the hand to help me find the temple I was looking for when I got lost in her little town.
I see more rudeness from fellow Americans in a week here than I'd see in a month from how Japanese folks treat Americans. I'd go back in a heartbeat, and hope to do so someday.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
What are you smoking? Go to the US and you get fingerprinted. Christ I went to Universal Studios back in 2008 and they wanted your finger print at the gate to go with your ticket.
Japan has zero crime and there is no requirement to use this system. If you are really worried about the govt tracking your daughters purchases get her to pull cash out of an ATM (useful tip 711s ATMs accept foreign cards not all others do) then buy a Pasmo or Suica card in any one of a zillion train stations and load it up with the cash. That card can be used just about everywhere in tokyo. The rest of the time use the cash. Of course if she bends the card or loses it monies gone. But it's anonymous right!?!?
Your daughter going to Japan would be a really good thing for her. She will get to see another highly developed country that has almost nothing in common with the US. She will get to see a totally different way of doing things and hopefully she will come back more well rounded for it.